Egyptian Officer Killed by Robbers in Darfur

Published: May 27, 2007

A United Nations military officer from Egypt who was deployed to the Darfur region of Sudan to support African Union peacekeepers was killed by robbers at his residence in El Fasher, an African Union spokesman said Saturday.

''The robbers entered the house, shot the officer and took some property,'' said Noureddine Mezni, an African Union spokesman. ''He is an Egyptian military officer.''

A United Nations spokesman confirmed that a military member had been killed in Darfur but gave no further details.

Mr. Mezni said that the Egyptian officer, a lieutenant colonel, was shot on Friday evening and that he died of his wounds on Saturday in El Fasher, the capital of the north Darfur state where the African Union force is based.

The acting head of the African Union mission in Sudan, Monique Mukaruliza, ''expressed her shock and condemned the killing in the strongest terms,'' Mr. Mezni said.

The United Nations estimates that more than 200,000 people have been killed in Darfur and more than two million driven from their homes since ethnic and political conflict flared in 2003, when rebels took up arms against the government.

Aid workers say security in Darfur has recently grown worse because of attacks by rebels, bandits and Arab militias known as the janjaweed.